Decision

Summary:
Alice has a violent vision of Bella's future and the Cullens consider changing Bella ahead of schedule. Jacob cannot bear the thought and considers war. After their decison Alice has strange visions of a silver-haired vampire and her mate.

Notes:

1. Ultimatum

I watched as the sun slowly rose, spreading light throughout the bedroom. The sunlight gently shined against Bella’s skin, illuminating her, making her snow white skin glow. I held her in my arms, she was soft, and oh so fragile. She was so breakable, so tiny. As I remembered how clumsy and ungainly Bella was when she walked or tried to dance I mulled over how she could have ever survived nearly nineteen years of life without me to act as her sentinel.

I wondered how such a beautiful and breathtaking person could ever have chosen me, out of all of the people in world. If you could even count me as a person. I wondered how such a delicate swan could ever love me, the hideous coveting beast. I had stolen her away. I had snatched her up from real life and pulled her into my own world forever shrouded in shadow, my world that should not exist, my days forever without sun, my twilight. I am inhuman, dead, cold, a thief, a manipulator, a liar, and a murderer. She is innocent.

As I watched her sleep I ached at how perfect she was. My eyes ran up and down her face, taking in her features. Her brown hair that was fanned out behind her and had suggestions of red in it in the sun. Her widow’s peak that cut sharply into her smooth and pale forehead. Her wide chocolate eyes that were closed now and her feather duster eyelashes that fluttered as she slept. Her long thin nose and her high and jutting cheekbones. Then finally, her full blood red lips. I reminisced about the feel of her smooth lips against mine and sighed.

With her thin frame curled against me I could imagine no happier place in the world than being right here, with Bella in her bed while she rested. I smiled and was there for a what seemed like a long while.

“Edward,” she murmured sweetly in her dreams (I envied her for a moment I wished that I could have sweet dreams of her, too). The sound of her tinkling voice sighing my name never failed to stir me. Indescribable emotions ran through me when I heard it. Those little whispers told the me the whole truth, the entire truth. Bella’s murmurings told me everything that I needed to hear. I never grew tired of hearing Bella sing my name or tell me that she loved me as she slept.

She shifted in my arms pressing her feverish chest against my cool one and her thumping heart against my still one. The sound resonated and echoed throughout the room that was so full of her scent. My senses immediately and unavoidably heightened. My pupils dilated, growing larger and taking more light than necessary. I could see straight through her! I could see beneath her nearly translucent skin, I could very clearly see the blood vessels rhythmically working beneath her paper-thin skin. My ears pricked. Her breathing and wildly beating heart filled my ears like an alluring symphony, the sound engulfed me. I could hear the blood swishing through her veins and arteries. And oh! That scent. That lovely scent like a lone luscious passionflower blossoming among spiny cacti in a desert of sand. My backmost teeth rhythmically spurted acidic venom which coated my tongue. My muscles tensed in anticipation.

I imagined bringing my teeth down to her throat and slicing through her like butter. The blood would flow freely and readily, a honeyed waterfall of crimson. I’d consume it all greedily. Isabella’s lifeblood would sustain me better than anyone else’s, it would make me as strong as I could ever possibly be. Bella wouldn't even realize her death, it would be over so fast. I would drain her until her heart slowed and then finally stopped. She would turn cold and limp in my arms. Forever asleep. Horror enveloped me.

I immediately unwrapped my arms from around her and shot out of her window and to the forest behind her house. Dry sobs poured for my mouth. What kind of a monster was I? What man wants to kill the woman that he loves? My sweet, sweet Bella! I trembled and stared at the hands that had been itching to pin Bella beneath me and tear her throat out. I ran those same villainous hands madly through my hair and fell to the fern covered ground. I wallowed in my monstrousness.

“Edward?” Bella’s voice called out to me, wondering why she had not woken up in my arms. “Are you still here?” She inquired. Instantly I composed myself. I stood up, shook out my hair, dusted myself off, and put myself at her bedside.

“Morning, love,” I said, as if there was not a single trouble in all of the world, “breakfast time for the human.”

Bella’s POV

Edward appeared instantly beside me. In the light that shined in through my window he was beautiful. The sun shined brightly on Edward's alabaster skin, making it glow insanely, shooting rainbows, as if there were tiny diamonds embedded in its surface. His always windswept copper hair framed his statuesque face perfectly. Huge dark golden eyes stared back at me, glinting mischievously like a puppy beckoning for play. In his tight white t-shirt I could see the outline of each and every one of his lean muscles perfectly. He grinned crookedly at my doe-eyed expression, I guessed that he heard my heart speed up.

Suddenly he was on top of me in the bed.

“Cat got your tongue, love?” Edward whispered huskily, his cool breath tickling my ear. I was going to spontaneously combust. He held me in his arms securely, there was no chance that I could escape his firm hold. Edward laughed gently and put his nose to my neck, inhaling deeply, and then sighing at the scent. His cold nose gently nudged at the nape of my neck, causing me to shudder. This cool tickling made me to squirm against him and he groaned softly. He kissed my neck, gently making his way up to my cheek. But that wasn’t enough, it was never enough. When his lips met mine I bit down on his lower lip with my teeth, trying to hold him there. His lip felt like a cold stone in my mouth. Edward’s breath caught in his throat. Unexpectedly and to my blissful surprise Edward began to attack me with his tongue.

His lips crashed against mine, his kisses were wild and almost pleading. I moaned helplessly in his arms as our tongues waged war, shooting electricity through my body whenever they touched. I threw my arms desperately around him and entwined my fingers in his hair, trying to pull him closer. Edward complied to my wishes and pressed himself roughly against me. My face burned at the feel out Edward through his clothes. Edward wrapped my leg around his waist and ran his hand maddeningly slow up and down it. He slowly and methodically grinded against me, I whimpered my pleasure.

Edward’s mouth roamed, sucking, biting, and kissing my neck, slowly making his way lower. I gasped when his hand made its way up my stomach and gently fondled my breast. This was not like him. I arched my back into him and welcomed the change.

“Edward, Edward, Edward,” I sighed.

In one swift movement Edward ripped my pajama shirt from my body and kissed my breast. My sharp yelp seemed to wake him out of whatever trance he had been in.

Edward looked at my naked chest in surprise, he had not even realized removing my shirt. When he looked for it and saw it torn on floor his brow furrowed. To my disappointment Edward looked at me worriedly and pulled my comforter around me to cover me up. He got up out of the bed and sat in the rocking chair at the other side of my room. He buried his face in his hands and said:

“Damn it, Bella, damn it, damn it, damn it.”

His frustration very nearly brought me to tears.

Edward POV

I wanted to be close to her so badly and I couldn’t. For the first time in my existence I found myself hoping for Bella’s transformation. I found myself wishing for the damned transformation to hurry up and get here. This was an old argument, an old fight.

“I don’t know what more to say, Bella.”

“I know,” she sounded close to tears.

“We’ve gone over this so many times before.”

“I know. I’m sorry for pushing you.”

I wanted to say that it wasn’t her fault and that I was the one to blame, but we had had this conversation so many times before that I didn’t bother. Can a vampire grow weary? I walked back over to her, hugged her gently, kissed her softly, and ran my hand through her hair. I lifted her up and muttered, ‘breakfast’ before dashing down the stairs and into my kitchen. A familiar scent met my nose. A girl even smaller than Bella was already preparing eggs and bacon. She was small with short inky black hair that fell around her elvish face in chunks. Her eyes were wide and the same golden shade as mine, her skin an identical marble complexion. Alice.

Alice’s POV

“I left the others messages. Rosailie, Jasper and Emmet'll be here soon, but Carlisle and Esme are out hunting,” I told Bella and Edward. I noticed that Bella was not wearing a shirt. Hmm. “How do you like your eggs, Bella?” I asked her.

“Er… fried.” Bella said before asking, “what the hell are you doing here?” Edward stopped me before I was able to speak.

“This is not the time for this,” he said. Stupid mind reader, I shot him a bunch of mean and nasty thoughts. He was really beginning to annoy me. I snarled angrily in his direction. Bella’s heart raced and she jumped up.

“What is going on?” I considered telling her now despite Edward’s warning (it had been so horrific… so much blood) but I changed my mind.

“Like Edward said, ‘this is not the time'. The others need to be here for this.”

Bella’s POV

This whole ‘let’s not tell Bella what’s going on to protect her and accidentally hurt her even more’ business is beginning to bore me. How many times must I go through this? I was trying very hard not to scream. I folded my arms, pouted, and tapped my foot impatiently. Edward stood stone-stiff against a wall and waited while Alice flipped eggs.

There was a burst of cold air when the front door flew open. The Cullens had made copies of the keys to my house? Pale-haired Jasper, blonde-haired Rosalie, and Emmett (black curls and all) strode gracefully into the kitchen.

Emmett swung me around in a circle and chuckled softly as I tottered when he let go. He looked over at Alice cooking eggs and snorted before muttering ‘human food’. Then Emmett looked me up and down and broke into shouts of laughter.

“Looks like Edward and Bella have been naaa-ughty!” He said in response to the bed sheet wrapped around my otherwise naked chest. I hadn’t remembered to put on a new shirt. I blushed darkly as even Rosalie began to titter.